~ Movie reviews and anything else that comes to mind

Lyric Analysis – Sugababes: Too Lost in You

After the excellent feedback that my last lyric analysis post accumulated, I thought I should do another as I had mentioned it in my plans for this year. Today it is the turn of Too Lost in You, a dark yet sensual pop ballad by girl group Sugababes. The song was recorded for the soundtrack to the romantic movie Love Actually. I have always liked this song and found it to be catchy yet filled with a moody melancholy and obsessive passion that is hard to escape. Anyway, back to the analysis.

‘You look into my eyes, I go out of my mind.’

Immediately we are put into the frame of mind of the narrator, who is obsessed with a lover from the very first time they see one another.

‘I can’t see anything cause this love’s got me blind.’

The love may be dark and worrying, but the protagonist is too head over heels to notice. Lines such as this add to the slightly morose tone to the song, and the vocals suggest pining for a distant lover.

‘I can’t help myself, I can’t break this spell, I can’t even try.’

Everything is useless because no matter how hard to she tries to pull away, her desire pulls her down again. These lines continue a sense of darkness that makes it more than just a love song.

‘I’m in over my head, you got under my skin.’

The singer notes that the relationship could lead to ruin, yet the grip of it all won’t let her be. The introduction of a backing beat in the music pushes the song on with an ominous pulse that ties in with the sensual yet dark content present.

‘I’ve got no strength at all in the state that I’m in.’

She is made weaker by her love for this man and no amount of fighting is worth it.

The singer acknowledges how deep she has fallen in love here, one of the few times in the song that she does. I always feel with lyrics like this the song can be read as a tale of unrequited love as there is a deep sense of worrying intensity and fragility to the singer’s voice.

‘Baby I’m too lost in you, caught in you.’

Her desire is building so much for this man, that everything she does is a reflection of it. The backing beat grows louder and more prominent in the chorus as an extension of blinding love and not being able to see anything else.

‘Lost in everything about you.’

Another example of how overtaken she is by blinded passion and love.

‘So deep, I can’t sleep, I can’t think.’

Her desperation for this man are of intense feeling as she can’t seem to function when he’s not around here.

‘I just think about the things that you do, you do.’

Even her personal view of everything is taken over by the image of her lover and what he is doing.

‘I’m too lost in you, too lost in you.’

These last lines of the chorus portray the tone of the song, a desperate and sensual ballad.

‘Well you whispered to me and I shiver inside.’

A small but subtle act of talking to someone is turned into something romantic by the singer as she becomes more entranced by this man.

‘You undo me and move me in ways undefined.’

The presence of this man does things to her that she can’t put into words, further drawing her into a sense of obsessive passion.

‘And you’re all I see and you’re all I need.’

The man who has entranced her is now the sole feature in her life, as nothing else matters except him.

‘Help me baby, help me baby, help me baby, help me now.’

She can see that this love will lead her astray and into darkness, but at this point with everything around her, it is too late to act. At this point, her voice is now pleading for release but not able to get it.

‘Cause I’m slipping away like the sand to the tide.’

Her sanity is quickly fading because of the obsession with her loved one. The use of the word slipping backs up the melancholy tone of the song as it connotes a failure to resist temptation.

‘Flowing into your arms, falling into your eyes.’

These lines continue the water motif from the last stanza, suggesting that the love is completely overtaking her and all logic is failing. The falling into your eyes shows that the love is that intense that they have almost become one person.

‘If you get too near I might disappear, I might lose my mind.’

This is one of the few times the singer sees that this love could be harmful and tries to fight it. Yet with the rest of the song, the fighting is futile because her love is blind and all-encompassing.

Chorus

The chorus is once again repeated, yet this time it feels more intense due to the vocal delivery and the presence of an electric guitar in the music.

‘I’m going crazy with love for you baby, I can’t eat and I can’t sleep.’

These lines stress the level of desperation she has been reduced to as a result of desire.

‘I’m going down like a stone in the sea, yeah no one can rescue me.’

She is now gone from any way of proper thinking or reasoning now as she plummets to the bottom of love’s abyss.

‘My baby, my baby’

Yet even though she is falling, she still affectionately calls her lover baby.

Last Chorus

For the last time the chorus is repeated, this time with the added romantic sound of strings. The use of ad-libbing in the vocals stresses the dark romance of the song as it has a sound of asking for help about it.

And here is the music video for the song for you all to watch and listen to.

Fabulous analysis and I absolutely love this song – I always associate it with Andrew Lincoln’s and Keira Knightly’s scenes in the film but it’s in the party scene isn’t it? And I read something that it’s only in the UK version, they play Kelly Clarkson in the US version but not sure if that’s true!

Not that fond of the film, but always liked the song. The chorus is very good, and the girls harmonise well on this one too. (If not always on other records.) I don’t get as deep into lyrics as you do, rather go for the overall sound. But now and again, the words do stay with me, that’s for sure.
Nice one, V. Best wishes, Pete.